328 



not a Shrike ; no one in fact who has watched it in life can have 

 any doubt on this subject ; but yet, except for their being more 

 strongly marked, its eggs have no doubt a very Shrike-like character, 

 at the" same time that they exhibit many affinities to those of 

 Ehipidura albifrontata and other undoubted Flycatchers. 



Mr. "W. Davison says :" About the first week in March 1871, 

 I found at Ootacamund a nest of this bird placed in the fork of 

 one of the topmost branches of a rather tall Berberis leschenaulti. 

 For the size of the bird this was an exceedingly small shallow nest, 

 and from its position between the fork, its size, and the materials 

 of which it was composed externally, might very easily have passed 

 unnoticed ; the bird sitting on it appeared to be sitting only on a 

 small lump of moss and lichen, the whole of the bird's tail, and as 

 low down as the lower part of the breast, being visible. The nest 

 was composed of grass and fine roots covered externally with cob- 

 web and pieces of a grey lichen, and bits of moss taken apparently 

 from the same tree on which the nest was built ; the eggs were 

 three in number. The tree on which this nest was built was 

 opposite my window, and I watched the birds building for nearly 

 a week; and, again, when having the nest taken, the birds sat till 

 the native lad I had sent up put out his hand to take the nest. I 

 am absolutely certain as to the identity of this nest and these eggs." 



The eggs brought me by Mr. Davison, of the authenticity of 

 which he is positive, are very Shrike-like in their appearance; 

 they are rather elongated ovals, somewhat obtuse at both ends, 

 and entirely devoid of gloss. The ground-colour is a pale greenish 

 or greyish white, and they are profusely blotched, spotted, and 

 streaked with darker and lighter shades of umber- brown ; in both 

 eggs these markings are more or less confluent along a broad 

 zone, which in one egg encircles the larger, in the other the smaller 

 end : these eggs measure O7 by O5 inch and 0'69 by 0-49 inch. 



Captain Horace Terry writes from the Palani Hills : " Pittur 

 Valley. I had a nest brought me which from the description of 

 the bird must, I think, have belonged to this species. Nest 

 rather a shallow cup placed in a thorny tree about ten feet from 

 the ground, neatly made of grass and moss, lined with fine grass 

 and a few feathers, covered a great deal on the outside with 

 dusky-coloured cobwebs, 2-5 inches across and 1-5 inch deep inside, 

 and 3-25 inches to 3'5 inches across, and 2-25 inches deep out- 

 side : contained five very much incubated eggs ; shape and marking 

 exactly like those of L. caniceps, having a well-defined zone round 

 the larger end ; size about the same or rather smaller than those of 

 Pratincola bicolor" 



485. Hemipus capitalis (McClelland). The Brown-backed Pied 



ShriJce. 



Hemipus capitalis (McClell.), Hume, Cat. no. 267 A. 

 I must premise that to the best of my belief there is no such 



